Retail

Oakland, Calif. -- Cost Plus Worldwide Market is opening its first-ever Manhattan outpost — and also showing off a new format.

The value-priced home furnishings and lifestyle specialty retailer will open a store on Thursday, August 20, in the city’s Chelsea neighborhood. At 5,000-sq.-ft., it is Cost Plus’ first small-scale store.

Cincinnati -- Macy’s on Wednesday announced several key initiatives to drive its growth going forward, ranging from new store ventures to digital efforts to an international foray.

New York -- Macy’s has joined the increasing number of retailers tapping into their real estate assets.

Macy’s on Wednesday announced a real estate purchase agreement with developer Tishman Speyer to sell several of the nine floors of the Macy’s store on Fulton Street in Brooklyn, New York. The real estate transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter, and Macy’s is expected to record a gain of approximately $250 million in its fiscal fourth quarter of 2015.

Pittsburgh -- Consumers love their smartphones, but retailers shouldn’t count out the “old tech” yet in terms of customer appeal. And merchants will have to put some effort into getting consumers to accept some of the new high-tech bells and whistles.

New York -- Two retail and consumer product goods veterans have joined Target's board of directors.

The company announced Wednesday that its board of directors elected Donald R. Knauss, former executive chairman and former chairman and CEO of the Clorox Company, and Robert L. Edwards, former CEO of Safeway Inc., as new directors, effective immediately.


New York -- Target Corp. is joining other retailers in the grocery delivery service.

The chain plans to begin testing a grocery-delivery service, reports the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal.

To read the story, click here.

New York -- Things are not getting any better at the struggling and cash-poor American Apparel. In fact, it looks like they are getting worse.

In a short form quarterly filing, the retailer said its net loss increased to $19.4 million in the second quarter from $16.2 million in the year-ago period while net sales fell 17% to $134 million. It estimated that, as of June 30, it had only $7 million in cash and $6 million left in its Capital One credit line. (American Apparel’s full quarterly filing will be delayed.)

Austin, Texas -- Smartphones are quickly becoming the first screen for consumers — even in retail stores. But while consumers overwhelmingly prefer to access the Internet on their mobile devices, only 30% use retailer applications to purchase products.

Those are two of the key takeaways of a study RetailMeNot, which commissioned Forrester Consulting to look at how smartphones and apps are changing the retail landscape and how retailers should respond to engage shoppers.